Regrets
by Cobalite
Summary: Angel has always regretted what he did to Drusilla and Penn. Ever wonder if Spike has any regrets? For Sailor Twilight, who is heading off to college.


Regrets

Author's Notes: Angel has always regretted what he did to Drusilla and Penn. Ever wonder if Spike has any regrets? For Sailor Twilight, who is heading off to college. We've been friends, and co-conspirators... er, I mean co-authors, for over five years, and I wish her the best of luck.  
  
Regrets  
By Cobalite Ice  
  
The newspapers were spread across the tables of the magic shop. Giles was staring at the pictures, cleaning his glasses. "I'm beging to fear we have a new master in town. These killings are far to organized and messy to be a band of fledglings. It's almost ritualistic, from the markings."  
  
"Have you noticed there aren't any students?" Willow was looking at the listings of the dead. "No one here is under thirty."  
  
"I always thought coeds were prime pickings." Xander sat back down, and Anya curled around him. He was carrying a tome, and handed it to her. "Maybe there's some kind of specific sacrifice we're missing here."  
  
Anya shook her head. "No, that doesn't make any sense. The gods prefer their victims at their prime."  
  
The door opened, and Dawn entered, dragging Spike behind her. "You promised you would take a look."  
  
"I don't do magic. You want someone to figure out why the sky is turning purple, you go track down my sire." Spike slumped into a chair, and lit a cigarette. "What's the big deal? So someone new is in town. It's not like they're trying to destroy the world yet."  
  
"The 'big deal' as you put it Spike, is that all the victims are adults. There are no teenagers showing up in the morgue." Giles noticed Spike was getting a little green. "Spike?"  
  
"Gimme the paper." Spike quickly read the article. "Damn it. Morgue photos. Head shots. I need to see the foreheads." Spike looked at the pictures Willow handed him. He didn't notice the odd looks the Scoobies were giving him.   
  
"Spike?" Dawn came up behind him. "Spike, what is it?"  
  
"Erin."  
  
"Erin? Is she part of your lineage? There's no record of an Erin in the Aurelius family tree." Giles grabbed another book.   
  
"Don't bother looking, Watcher. She won't be listed." If one knew where to look, you could see a slight quiver in his hands. "Not in anything that old. She was just turned a few years ago."  
  
"Do you know what the symbol means? We haven't been able to decipher it's meaning." Giles was begging to wonder if something was wrong with Spike.  
  
"It doesn't mean anything, really. It's a charm to keep demons from entering a human body. She doesn't want what happened to her to happen again." Spike stopped and though. "Erin will be a tall blond, around the age of eighteen."  
  
"That's real helpful, Spike. That's only twenty percent of the town." Xander was already on edge from planning the wedding, he didn't want to have to deal with Spike too.  
  
"She'll also be impersonating a college student, most likely part time, using her real name. Her family doesn't know she's dead, she never told them. She'll be studying animation, or getting a general art degree. And it won't just be night classes, she's almost as good as Angel is at getting around in the daytime."  
  
"Spike, that is not normal vampire behavior." Giles was more confused now than before. "After she was turned, she shouldn't have cared about college anymore."  
  
"Did Harmony stop caring about shopping?" Spike finally met their gazes. "The stronger the obsession, the more trouble the demon has overriding the personality. All Erin cared about when she died was art and the Backstreet Boys. That didn't go away when I killed her."  
  
"She's your childe?" Dawn looked hurt. "You told me you didn't have any."  
  
"She's not my childe. I never claimed her, never even intended to turn her." Spike's eyes were dark. "She fought back, sunk her teeth into my wrist. That's why she's still so humanlike, she didn't take much blood."  
  
"Just tell me her real name, and I can track her down through the campus system." Willow dug out her computer.   
  
"No."  
  
"No?"   
  
"You're all leaving her alone." Spike got up and stubbed out his cigarette. "She's not causing any trouble."  
  
"She's killing people!" Tara frowned at him. "That's trouble."  
  
"So are all the other vampires in Sunnydale. You only go after the ones you catch hunting. If you people are good enough to catch her, I'll tell you when she's dust. Other wise," Spike opened the door, and held his hand out for Dawn. "Leave her be."  
  
Dawn followed him. "Why did you lie to me?"  
  
"I'm not supposed to have regrets, I'm a vampire." His voice was so angry. "I'm not supposed to feel bad about killing some teenager, or the fact that she became a vampire afterwards."  
  
"Why do you?"  
  
"I didn't used to." He wouldn't look at her. "Vampires are always happy to be vampires after the fact. She thanked me, thanked me! Thanked me for giving her more time to do what she loved. Then she left for college, just like she'd planned to. She was smart enough to travel during the day, she goes to tanning salons to keep from getting pale. They'll never pick her out of the other students without her real name."  
  
"You never answered me. Why do you regret turning her now?" Dawn stopped walking, and waited for an answer.  
  
"You remind me of her, okay?" Spike spotted a pay phone. "Can you keep your mouth shut?"  
  
"If she's not gonna be killing my friends or destroying the world."  
  
"Good." He rummaged in his pocket, and handed her a few dollars. "While I track down her dorm room, can you do me a favor?"  
****  
Spike didn't bother knocking, he just picked the lock. Pressing his finger to his lips, he smiled at Dawn, and swung the door open. "Hello, Erin."  
  
Dawn wasn't sure what she was expecting. The heavy black curtains covering the windows were the only clues that a vampire might live here. She even owned some of the same posters.  
  
The girl sprawled across the bed jumped to her feet. "Spike! What are you doing here?"  
  
"This is my town, luv. The question is why you're here. Last I heard, you were living in LA." Spike looked at the Backstreet and anime posters on the wall, and shook his head. 'Some demons never change.'  
  
"Since the Slayer died, this vampire named Angel is on a rampage. I got out of there. They say he has a soul, that the two of them used to be lovers." She noticed Dawn. "It's not that I don't appreciate the gift, but I don't kill kids. They're my target audience."  
  
"I'm not the gift, this is." She held out something wrapped in a drugstore bag. Erin took it from her, and laughed.  
  
"You've been researching me, haven't you?" It was a composition notebook. She looked at Dawn again, still confused, but explained. "I can only write in composition books. It's something from when I was alive. What's with the kid, Spike?"  
  
"I'm taking care of her. I owed her older sister a few hundred favors." Spike hadn't seen Erin in almost three years. He wasn't sure if her politics were still the same, it made him hesitant to mention whom the older sister was.  
  
"Are these yours?" Dawn was looking at some characters on the wall she didn't recognize.   
  
"Yup. Those are my Soldiers. Right now it's an underground comic, but someday it'll be published all over the world." Dawn studied Erin, she'd never seen a vampire with dreams besides world destruction and or domination.   
  
"Came to warn you, this was the Slayer's town. Her minions have noticed you aren't taking the kids. Watch it, that dopey kid walking through the cemetery might be packing a stake." Spike walked over to one wall, and touched a picture. It appeared to be a family portrait, of three vampires in gameface. "You draw good, Erin. You'll have centuries to get published now."  
  
"I know." She took down the picture and handed it to him. "Stay safe, Spike. You look kinda beat up."  
  
He looked at his watch, and avoided her worried comment. "Dawn has school tomorrow, I should be getting her home. Keep out of sight."  
  
"Okay." She handed Dawn something printed on computer paper. "The first issue. The rest are still in the comp books, so you'll have to come back for more when you're done."  
  
"Thanks. Goodnight, Erin." Dawn went to follow Spike and walk out the door, when the other girl stopped her.  
  
"Amy. My real name was Amy." The vampire looked sadly at the heavy curtains.   
  
END  
  
"I will ride the Train to worship Jesus."  
~Amy Richardson-Dorough


End file.
